


You Could Be Great

by freckles42



Category: Gordon Ramsay - Fandom, Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe - Harry Potter Setting, Crossover, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-01
Updated: 2014-06-01
Packaged: 2018-02-03 00:37:28
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,501
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1724735
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/freckles42/pseuds/freckles42
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Hogwarts' Potions professor Gordon Ramsay faces a challenge in first-year student Draco Malfoy.</p>
            </blockquote>





	You Could Be Great

A paper biplane zipped around the potions room as the first years tidied up. It was the second week of classes and Professor Ramsay had only needed to replace three cauldrons and one table - and, to be fair, two of the melted cauldrons had not been destroyed by firsties at all. That honor lay with Fred and George Weasley.

Professor Ramsay sat at his desk, measuring out ingredients while simultaneously keeping an eye on Draco Malfoy. Draco, of course, was not packing up, but had left the process to two other students (whom Professor Ramsay felt certain would be called “goons” in a few years). Gordon flicked a wand at the paper biplane, which proceeded to land in front of Draco. Draco looked around suspiciously before curiosity won out and he opened the folded bit of paper.

 _“See me after class,”_ the note read. Draco’s head snapped up and he glared at Professor Ramsay. Gordon fought every instinct to meet this child’s gaze with a withering one he normally reserved for his older students. He kept his face as neutral as he could, looking vaguely impatient and expectant with a slight cock of the head and lift of the eyebrows. 

“You go on ahead, Goyle, Crabbe,” Draco said, noticing his buddies were waiting for him in the rapidly emptying classroom. A cocky little smirk flitted across his face. “Special meeting with our Head of House.” The two boys glanced uncertainly between Draco and Professor Ramsay, then seemed to decide they were definitely needed elsewhere. They scarpered. Gordon waited until they were clear of the doors before closing them with a flick of his wand. They slammed shut with more force than he’d intended; Draco’s head whipped around and looked at Gordon with wide, fearful grey eyes. 

Gordon was reminded so strongly that this was truly just an eleven-year-old boy. An eleven-year-old boy who finally had real access to magic for himself. Whose father was a known Death Eater (and oh, Gordon knew), who had to be terrified of this new world he was finally in. Gordon sighed a bit as he crossed to where Draco sat. He looked as run-down as he suddenly felt, remembering his own first year at Hogwarts. He was finally free of his father’s alcoholic ways, although he worried about his two younger siblings; his older sister, Diane, was at Hogwarts with him. He was muggleborn, of course, although his mother had said there were rumors the family was magical. Her father, apparently, had been a Squib. He had longed for stability and family and belonging - but he’d also nursed a deep desire to prove himself to be better than his father. 

He had been sorted into Slytherin at a time when things were very dark for that house. The Wizarding War was ramping up in 1978, when Gordon started at Hogwarts, and he ended up fighting his whole life to prove he was ambitious but not evil. By the time he’d graduated in 1985, He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named was gone, the Potters were long dead, Gordon had served for five years on the Slytherin Quidditch team (five years full of injuries, as it turned out), both of Gordon’s younger sisters were at Hogwarts, and he was apprenticed to one of Professor Slughorn’s many contacts in the Potions field. 

Professor Slughorn’s replacement, a sallow young man named Severus Snape who’d graduated the year Gordon started, took over at the start of Gordon’s fourth year. Gordon had found Professor Snape awful and abusive to anyone who was not a Slytherin. Fortunately for Gordon, he’d really grown into his talent for Potions during Snape’s tenure. After graduating, Gordon Ramsay began a promising career as a restaurant’s apothecary. A few years later, though, Severus Snape had disappeared from Hogwarts with no note and no warning. Professor Slughorn, rather than coming out of retirement, had suggested Gordon as a possible replacement. He had jumped at the chance for the job. Hogwarts was home. Hogwarts was safety. All of this flitted through his mind in the moments it took him to cross to his student.

“Sir?” Draco asked, a touch fidgety. His hands gripped the side of his stool and he looked fit to flee if Professor Ramsay dismissed him. Gordon pulled up a stool next to him and it occurred to him that he had never heard Draco call him ‘sir’ before now.

“Mr. Malfoy,” Gordon said. “Draco.” The fear was still in Draco’s eyes.

Gordon took a moment to compose himself before he began speaking.

“You are a Slytherin. You are in my House. _My_ house.” Gordon closed his eyes briefly before returning his gaze to Draco. “When I was your age, I sat in this very classroom. Right over there.” He tipped his head towards the corner. “I had never heard of Hogwarts before then, even though my older sister was already a student here. I thought she was at a normal, Muggle, boarding school and that my father must have hurt her somehow and that’s why she was sent away. I was angry with her for leaving me to protect our other sisters and I was jealous that she was no longer at home and I was worried about what must have happened to her. And then, I got my letter.” He regarded Draco for a long moment. 

“My father was an alcoholic. Is. He’s still alive, that is to say. And alcoholics are always alcoholics, whether they’re drinking or not. It’s the same with dark magic, Draco. Do you understand?” 

Draco slowly shook his head. He looked like he was working up some biting remark, but Gordon spoke before he could let it coalesce. 

“You probably think we are nothing alike. You come from an old Wizarding family. I am Muggleborn through a Squib line. Your father has more money than he knows what to do with. My family was poor. You have lived in the same home your entire life. I’ve rarely lived in a place longer than a year - at least, until I got to Hogwarts. But you and I, we are the same. People are very likely going to give you a hard time about your father. Some will fear you. Some will want to be close to you because of it. But Draco, you do not have to be like your father if you do not wish to — and you have seven years here at Hogwarts to figure that out. Take the time,” Gordon urged. “In fact,” he continued as a sudden thought occurred to him, “I am giving you a homework assignment.”

“But sir,” Draco protested, finally finding his voice. Gordon lifted a hand to silence him. Draco cringed back. Gordon saw the same fear he’d seen his entire life with his father. He’d seen it in scared pets and bullied children. He immediately dropped the hand to his side and leaned in. 

“Oh, Oh Draco. I wasn’t going to hit you,” he said, voice even softer. He reached out and put his hands on his student’s shaking shoulders. “Draco. I need you to listen to me. I am not a bully. I am here to motivate you. And you… _you are not a bully, either._ ” Draco’s shoulders shook harder. Gordon rubbed Draco’s arms as best he could. He wondered if this child had ever had a hug in his life. He suspected that if he had, the most recent one was so long ago that Draco couldn’t remember it. He didn’t try to hug Draco - he suspected that Draco wouldn’t even know how to react and it might send him into a panic. Instead, he just kept trying to soothe him.

“Do you want to hear your assignment?” he asked once Draco’s shudders slowed. His head dropped, but he nodded.

“Do four kind things this week — one per House here at Hogwarts. Help someone with their Potions homework. Return an item someone else in Slytherin stole. Say something nice about the way someone looks. Hold open an umbrella for a classmate with full arms as you cross the courtyard. Do you get the idea?” 

Draco nodded again.

“And just so we’re clear, this is homework. I expect you to write down what you’ve done each week and deliver it to me at the start of class on Friday. Also, I expect you to tidy up your own area at the end of class. Are we clear?”

Draco nodded.

“Then you may go.”

Draco slid off his stool and gathered up his satchel. His slow steps toward the door belied his inner thought process. He glanced back at Professor Ramsay as his hand closed around the door handle. 

“Professor - why?”

What a loaded question. Why do this? Why help him? Why was he being forced to do extra work? Why single him out? Why care?

Gordon took a moment. “Because, Mr. Malfoy, we are Slytherins. And I want to see you succeed. I believe you can be great. So, go: be great - and be _good. _”__

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by a string of comments on Tumblr. 
> 
>  
> 
> [](http://imgur.com/TcrmDTG)  
> 


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